Lignin is a major constituent of plant biomass and represents the second largest organic polymer on our planet. A large quantity of lignin is generated from pulp and papermaking processes. The upcoming biomass biorefinery industry will bring in an enormous amount of lignin. However, despite significant efforts in the past few decades, the commercial lignin market has stagnated at about one million tons per year. Catalytic degradation of biorefinery lignin to low molecular weight phenolic compounds is an area which has not been well studied.
It is clear that there is a lack of efficient method to convert polymeric lignin at a moderate condition to phenolic compounds in high yield. Most of the processes either lack the selectivity to obtain target products in high yield or require high temperature and high pressure conditions.